I pity the fool
Chris Patten has written an awful, patronizing and counter-productive piece in the New York Times. I was so happy about their news desk, but the Op-Ed is the same broken record about Sri Lanka being doomed to conflict and, oh, if they would only listen to the West. He literally starts the piece with ‘pity the poor Sri Lankan voter.’ Pity my democratic ass, we have a real choice at this election and the it’s already delivering results. Dudes are falling over themselves to woo voters and roads are opening, IDP camps are emptying, journalists are getting out of jail.
I think Sri Lanka can change and will change, but it will come from us. Instead of respecting and working with the Sri Lankan people, Chris Patten comes out with the usual moralizing tirade which has not much to back it up. He’s all about pity and threats of ‘cutting us off’. This may make a point in the circles he walks in, but it just hurts moderates on the ground here. Basically, he sounds like a colonial dick and strengthens the extremists. In the end it makes less and less space for us to push actual democratic values in the middle.
How to deal with shit like this:
Now, put yourself in a Tamil’s shoes, and decide whom to vote for in the presidential election: Choose either the head of the government that ordered the attacks against you and your family, or the head of the army that carried it all out.
Mr. Patten is saying that the Sri Lankan government ordered attacks specifically against Tamil civilians. I think the orders callously put people in the crossfire, but I don’t think for a moment that civilian families were targeted. No one is saying that the government was purposefully attacking civilians rather than attacking the LTTE and not much caring who was in the way. The latter is bad enough, but I think Mr. Patten’s allegation here is false. Worse, it makes the actual trauma look false by exaggeration.
Then there’s
By the end of 2009, most of the displaced had been moved, and the nearly 100,000 remaining in military-run camps were enjoying some freedom of movement — important steps brought about mostly as a result of international pressure and the authorities’ desire to win Tamil votes.
Can’t you just say, ‘we commend the government, but’? Even with tongue in cheek, just for diplomacy’s sake? The international community was not the reason, otherwise they would have also stopped the war. And the government decided to call the election. Plus they actually released the IDPs on the schedule they set. This is again Mr. Patten placing all the agency with the West and us just non-entities. He doesn’t give the government credit for anything, which even I do. It’s just a fatalistic view where Sri Lankans can’t do anything and the West needs to step in.
It is hard to imagine either candidate making the necessary constitutional reforms to end the marginalization of Tamils and other minorities — the roots of the decades-long conflict. Left unaddressed, Tamil humiliation and frustration could well lead to militancy again.
While Sri Lankan voters face a difficult decision, for the international community, the choice is clear. Whoever wins, the outside world should use all its tools to convince the government to deal properly with those underlying issues to avoid a resurgence of mass violence.
You know what, I can imagine it. I can imagine a better future, and I think most Sri Lankans can. So I’d really rather you not poop on that dream. It is something of a tautology here that the darkies will kill each other if they don’t follow western government just so. What they don’t realize is that a police state can also contain militancy, and there’s nothing a police state loves more than an international bogeyman making sweeping declarations, like…
In short, this means not giving Colombo any money for reconstruction and development until we know how it will be spent. And if we see funds not being used as promised, it means not being afraid to cut them off until.
Wow, I feel like I’m getting lectured by my dad, except Chris Patten isn’t my dad and the west itself is floating on Chinese loans. And the West is propping up governments in Saudi and Egypt and Israel and Pakistan that pretty much ignore what they say, but they seem to think it’s cool to make an example of Sri Lanka. I don’t mind if they act firmly, but they’re not really going to do it, certainly not based on some NGO Op-Ed. Talking loudly and carrying a little stick just emboldens extremists here.
They like the international bogeyman, and they especially like patronizing, empty threats. The JVP and people like Gotabaya Rajapakse are trying to spread this idea of an international conspiracy against Sri Lanka and Patten plays right into their hands. But again with the doom and gloom,
While there may not be much to choose between the candidates, the rift between General Fonseka and Mr. Rajapaksa — and the consequent divisions among Sinhalese nationalist parties and the renewed vigor of opposition parties — has at least put the possibility of reforms on the agenda. International leverage, correctly applied, could help expand this small window for change.
Well, there is a huge choice. Sarath doesn’t have a huge extended family for one, he’s in a coalition with all the minority parties, etc. They have drastically different proposals, one calling for more government reforms, the other same government and more projects. And what are these Sinhalese nationalist parties? The SLFP and UNP are not Sinhala nationalist parties, both work with Muslim and Tamil parties as expediency demands. And who split? Is he referring to the JVP, which is actually an opposition party? The only real Sinhala nationalist party is the JHU, and they’re not very prominent in this election at all.
I’m in the middle and even I am put off by both the tone and content of Mr. Patten’s piece. I don’t like it because it’s all about the West and how they know what’s right, giving no thought or respect to the Sri Lanka people that actually have to implement change. Threatening us with money or holding back money only pushes us back from the values that I think we have in common. In the face of what feels like an international threat, the country will pull away.
My overall point is that if the west needs to behave diplomatically. Speak softly and carry a big stick. You have money, cool, hold it over the ministers, don’t use it in a public forum that humiliates Sri Lankan people. You’re aware that many Sri Lankans think this war was worth it, why not put in a few paras to placate them that you’re not with the terras and rabid diaspora. Above all, don’t pity the Sri Lankan voter. We’re doing OK.
Chris Patten and his friends couldn’t do anything to stop the war and prevent the LTTE from getting decimated. This was because Mahinda and Gotabhaya had balls to stand up to them. As long as they are in power, I’ve got nothing to worry about.
Regardless of what Patten says, the Western media, diplomats, NGOs and pro-LTTE parties clearly favour Sarath Fonseka. EU’s timely withdrawal of GSP+ and SF camp’s claim that it’ll be reinstated if Fonseka is elected, clearly sounds like that “leverage” Patten is referring to.
The question Sri Lankan voters have is this. Are we going to let our enemies elect our president, or should we vote for the candidate they seem to loathe? We’re undergoing a forcible regime change, and we must stand up and resist.
I for one respect MR for having the ball for standing up and not dancing for the tune of people like Patton and Milliband. he is, in my opinion, the only leader who had the balls to tell the west to go take a hike. If it wasn’t for his stubbornness in not letting west rule over us, SF would not have had the chance to be decorated the way he was.
Clearly the west hates him because here is a leader who they cant make to dance to their tune. And right now they will put their weight behind any alternative whom they think they will be able to have a hold on. And Ranil has always been the puppy of the west, doing whatever they wanted. And SF is playing right into their hands.
Indi, you talk about corruption and extended family. What is the guarantee that SF’s extended family wont flock around his IF he wins. It always happens. We are in SL, remember, where we do have close relations with our extended families, unlike in the west.
I for one will vote for MR, at least he is steadfast in what he says and doesnt shoot himself in the foot in everyturn.
“The International Crisis Group is now generally recognised as the world’s leading independent, non-partisan, source of analysis and advice to governments, and intergovernmental bodies like the United Nations, European Union and World Bank, on the prevention and resolution of deadly conflict” – I’m not sure if this, given Patton’s moronity is sad or funny.
I must disagree with you on this one Indi.
Far from being patronising and counter-productive, in the long term, this is the best advice anyone can give.
This bitter medicine must be taken in the right spirit if we are not about to end up like our friends in Iran, Burma and elsewhere.
Yer, just like Iran and N Korea I suppose.
“In short, this means not giving Colombo any money for reconstruction and development until we know how it will be spent. And if we see funds not being used as promised, it means not being afraid to cut them off until.”
yep, that is good advice.
And then they wonder why we have friends in the red camp.
Q- When will the West learn that the carrot and stick will not work ?
A- when it stops working.
Mahinda has balls of steeel and West hates that .
Was it you who wrote the article or was it sittingnut on mahinda’s balls ?
Only thing Obama has not done so far is kneel front of Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong II.
Mahasen
who does Mahinda’s balls of steel benefit? Mahinda. Who suffers? The people.
All dictators from Mugabe to the Burmese Junta live in the lap of luxury while repressing their people, all of which they sell as a message of defianace against “oppression” from the West.
Laughable if it were not so serious.
It’s interesting how some people and groups perceive themselves. I had to stop myself from gagging when I read that description of the International Crisis Group.
hmm, iran and korea subjects are interesting.
Had to say this to Anon.
“who does Mahinda’s balls of steel benefit? Mahinda. Who suffers? The people.”
Isn’t that a distortion of facts to fit your theory?
Mahinda’s balls allowed Sri Lankans to imagine a future without LTTE. What if Sri Lanka didn’t have a president’s brother as defence secretary?
“All dictators from Mugabe to the Burmese Junta live in the lap of luxury while repressing their people, all of which they sell as a message of defianace against “oppression” from the West.”
Comparing Sri Lanka to dictatorships will work in certain circles but it is intellectually dishonest.
We are talking about a democratic election here. The incumbant might even lose all power.
Standing up to bullies and refusing to become a puppet-state do not make us similar to Iran or North Korea. We don’t threaten other countries, develop weapons of mass destruction (lol), or have a totalitarian regime. Unlike in Zimbabwe, the Sri Lankan economy is booming, the stock market has been on a sustained bull-run, and our foreign policy is based on selfish pragmatism, not Mugabean ideology.
If it wasn’t for Mahinda’s balls of steel, the LTTE would have legal power over the Northeast by now. Even if Sarath wasn’t there and Jagath or Shavendra were in his position, the outcome of the war wouldn’t be different. Can anyone honestly say that the war could have been won if Mahinda or Gotabhaya had been killed?
They sure are!
Wonder what the Iranian people have to say about Ahmadijad? OR the the Korean people of the Dear Leader?
Ruin and starvation in Korea; declining living standards even while oil prices go up in Iran.
Fun for the leaders. Not so funny for the people.
Don’t fool yourself.
The fate of the LTTE was sealed with the CFA. They were imploding from within. The Karuna split was the first of many that were developing within.
With alternatives open, the cadres were deserting. Praba needed a solution fast- which Ranil was not delivering. He would have had no fighting capacity left-weapons a plenty but no fighters left; had they been trapped in teh CFA. He needed to breakout of the CFA and he knew Ranil would not let him that is why the Tamil voters were prevented from voting fro Ranil.
MR won by 180k votes with 400-500k Tamils denied the vote.
Had we gone down Ranil’s path we would have saved all the funds, a many lives and have a platform to build a future.
Now we have debt and international isolation.
I don’t think the fate of the LTTE was sealed with the CFA. I think it actually strengthened them and gave them access to billions of rupees by taxing everyone and everything using the A9. Sri Lanka is not in any more in debt than it was in 2005. And by ‘international isolation’ I think you mean SL isn’t kissing UK butt anymore.
No we just kiss the Chinese instead
While I agree and commend all that is sttaed, I believe it also filters down to another common factor. That is, Quality of Life. Education comprises a part of it, but what about the rest ? Income, health care, life expectancy (SL ranks well on this pillar) economy, gender equality and sustainability as Neil as articulated. Take for example the fact that SL is currently ranked 97 in the UN Human Development Index. The country Im presently residing in is ranked 37. If we prefer to remain where we are because we are happier does that make us selfish? Or does it simply mean that we prefer our comfort zones? Say for example dual citizenship is encouraged what motivation will it offer someone who still chooses to live overseas because of a better QOL ?